Australian looking forward to finale of today’s race
Following a three week training break plus a return to competition in the Vuelta al Pais Vasco, Sky Procycling’s Simon Gerrans lined out at the start of today’s Amstel Gold Race as equal team leader with Lars Petter Nordhaug.
He said that his small number of racing days in the past six weeks could leave him slightly lacking in sharpness, but that he expected the race to put him in perfect shape for Wednesday’s Flèche Wallonne and next Sunday’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
However he remains determined to try to do something today, saying that he would give it 100 percent. “My best results in the past few years have come at Liege, but I think Amstel is still my favourite race of the three. I like the parcours a bit better at that race and the crowd is usually larger.
“The circuits mean the fans can sit at the side of the road and watch us go past two or three times. The race has a really good ambience about it and the climbs also suit me as well because they are shorter and more explosive than the others.”
Gerrans has shown that explosive power in the past, taking a stage win in the 2009 Giro d’Italia atop the short, steep finishing climb in Bologna. He is part of a rare clutch of riders to have taken stage victories in each of the Grand Tours, picking up a Vuelta stage win the same season, and one at the Tour de France one year earlier.
He also won the GP Ouest France in 2009; this result again reflected his ability to ride well on shorter climbs.
Two years ago, Gerrans had his best Ardennes Classics campaign. He was sixth in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, seventh in the Amstel Gold Race and eighth in Flèche Wallonne. He’s determined to show well again in that trio of events.
“I definitely want to be up there in all three races, because I’m in good shape and have got some results here in the past. I might also be offered the privilege of riding under the radar a bit because I didn’t really perform here last year and hopefully that could mean I won’t be a marked rider in the race. If that happens, I think my chances are pretty good…I just hope I can turn this condition into good results now.”